Influence of saline irrigation schedules on vegetative growth and reproduction of different progenies of the sea asparagus Salicornia neei Lag

Salicornia neei is used as a fresh vegetable in gourmet kitchens, in industrialized food, and for animal food. This work evaluated the effect of different irrigation schedules of saline water on the vegetative growth of F3 and F4 progenies of new S. neei lineages (BTH1 and BTH2). Twenty plants per progeny were submitted to irrigation with 375 L of saline water from shrimp farming every two (T2) and four (T4) days in field plots. These irrigation schedules were quantified as 249% and 151% of the estimated potential evapotranspiration of the study period (670 mm), respectively. Data were analyzed by ANOVA. BTH2-F4 exhibited the best vegetative performance and an average fresh shoot biomass of 201.2 ± 17.1 g. The average time for onset of